Digital Marketing News in the Tampa Bay Area and Vestal New York.

The Types of Data Every Business Should Collect

Data-driven marketing is continuing to grow—and for good reason. It has allowed businesses to build personalized marketing strategies, create better customer experiences, generate relevant leads, and retain loyal customers based on strong empirical evidence.

The value of data doesn’t reside in the numbers it reveals. Rather, the real value of data resides in what a business decides to do with it. Data can have a huge impact on a business. Whether you have 100 customers or 100,000 customers, it is never too early or too late to start collecting useful data that will improve your business’s decision-making and bottom line.

So what types of data should every business be collecting?

Demographic Data

Let’s get back to the basics. Who is your average customer? Who makes up your audience? Basic customer data forms your business’s most fundamental understanding of your customers and relationships. Collecting statistical data about age, gender, income, location, education, job title, family status, and more allows your business to divide your audience in broad strokes and build specific audience profiles. Basic demographic data allows businesses to identify their key customers in a large marketplace, understand their customers, and how to effectively connect with them.

Why is this important? Because today’s buyers expect personalized customer experiences and for business to implicitly understand their needs, preferences, and problems. Customers expect to be fully seen and understood when consuming your business’s marketing materials. As a result, your business needs to know exactly who they are talking to.

Discovery Data

How did your customers discover your business? This is one of the most crucial questions for your business to answer. It will give you invaluable insights into your marketing strategy and where your business needs to place its attention. The goal in collecting this data is to analyze the effectiveness of your marketing strategy and discover which tool works best.

For example, your business may find a majority of customers discover you from a certain social media channel. With this knowledge, your business can then confidently focus on building a stronger brand presence there. On the other hand, if you find a majority of your customers discover your business through blogs or industry-related new articles on search engines, then investing in more written content will be a priority.

Engagement Analytics

How does your audience interact with your business’s content and marketing materials? A business’s audience plays a crucial role in its growth and success. Your marketing strategy’s success directly depends upon audience engagement. Understanding audience engagement is now a nonnegotiable factor in increasing marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

Engagement data points can include: activity on your website or digital event, email open rates, resources downloaded, time spent on a page or watching a video, time spent on an event like a webinar or podcast, pages per session, and much more.

Where is your audience’s virtual pulse the strongest? Do your customers prefer to interact with your brand on social media pages, in their inboxes, or directly on your website? Knowing these answers will help your business readjust when needed and stay present where your customers want you.

Behavioral Data

You know who your customers are—but do you know how they act? Behavioral data focuses on customer purchasing habits, spending habits, customer journey stages, engagement level, and brand interactions. Essentially, this type of data collection narrows in on what your customers do rather than who they are.

It is a type of targeting that is particularly effective in discovering customer purchase patterns and spending trends. For example, you can discover whether your customers are more likely to shop online or in-store, how often they use coupons, or how likely they would shop a sale.

Perhaps most importantly, behavioral data helps your business understand what kind of shoppers or clients your customers are. Are your customers complex shoppers that actively research the best option before purchasing? Are your customers variety seekers that enjoy trying out different brands even when they enjoy a certain brand’s product? Or are your customers habitual shoppers that frequently return to familiar brands without much thought? Knowing how your audience approaches their buying process is invaluable information that will optimize your marketing approach.

Purchase Decision Data

What inspires your customers to convert? What drives their buying decisions? Unlocking this answer is key to creating effective marketing materials that drive real results. Purchase decision data allows businesses to discover what influences their audience to convert with a certain brand. For instance, are your customers swayed by personal factors, such as company missions and core values that align with their own beliefs? Or are your customers inspired to convert based on societal trends and cultural fads?

When your business discovers what influences your audience, you can adjust your marketing messages accordingly to create communications that resonate with your customers and move them to action.

Transactional Data & Buying Behavior

Transactional data and buying behavior data can include: price points your customers shop at, if they buy with discounts or promos, a preference for certain products or brands, purchase frequency, time of purchase, method of purchase, and more. By collecting this basic transactional data, businesses can then identify common buying behaviors among their customers.

Consequently, by understanding their customers’ specific buying behaviors, businesses can create effective strategies around those behaviors. Not only does this add value to the customer’s shopping experience, but it also increases conversion rates.

Start Using Your Data Like a Valuable Resource

Imagine the impact when your business starts leveraging data to better understand your customers. Data-driven approaches empower your business to confidently optimize your marketing strategy and deliver greater customer experiences.

Do you want to collect and use data to improve your customer conversion and retention? Contact Sun Sign Designs to discuss a viable data & analytics strategy that will work for your business.

Are You Leveraging Data for Stronger Customer Relationships?

More and more businesses today are becoming customer-centric or client-centric, which means, at the core of every business strategy, there is a heavy emphasis on customer satisfaction and fulfillment. Why? Because at the end of the day, a business’s success depends not only on its products or services, but on its rapport with its customers.

Turning Information into Strong Relationships

Anything a business can do to strengthen and deepen their customer relationships now is an actionable move toward long-term sustainability and growth later. This is where data comes in. Data is much more than numbers and percentages. It is invaluable knowledge that unlocks the formula to customer conversion and customer retention. By truly understanding your customer’s background, personality, wants, and needs, your business has the answers on how to best please them and keep them.

Who are Your High-Value Customers? Why Do They Continually Convert?

Not all customers are created equal—businesses have to locate their prime customers to target them and generate revenue. High-value customers are the ones who are the most visible to your business in terms of engagement or conversion. Why do they convert more so than other demographics? What aspects of your brand messaging, products, or services speak to them?

Identifying these nuances in your customer data allows your business to place them at the center of your marketing strategy and build off these insights. This data helps you make business decisions with more confidence since you know exactly who and where your target is.

Who are Your Potential Customers? Why Aren’t They Converting?

When do potential customers leave your website or social media pages? By locating when customers abandon their cart or unsubscribe from email lists, your business can double-down to identify the trigger that halted their buyer’s journey with your brand. As a result, businesses may find that their pages loaded too slow and need to optimize their site speed in order for more potential customers to convert. Businesses may find that there are not enough call-to-actions on their landing pages or that their banner placement is poor in their emails. This type of data allows businesses to continually optimize and improve for their customers in actionable, result-driven ways.

How Do Your Customers Act?

How do you customers act? The more types of data you collect on an individual, the better you’ll be able to understand and cater to their needs and expectations. This type of behavioral data focuses on uncovering customer purchasing habits, their customer journey stage at time of conversion, engagement level, and brand interactions. Essentially, it helps your business focus on what your customers do in addition to who they are—this knowledge allow your business to cater to their specific habits.

This type of data collection is particularly effective in discovering customer purchasing patterns and spending trends. For example, a business could discover whether their customers are more likely to shop online or in-store, how often they use coupons, if promos make them convert, or how likely they would shop a sale.

But perhaps most importantly, behavioral and transactional data helps your business understand what kind of shoppers your customers are. Do they actively research the best options before purchasing? If they do, then maybe your business invests in more blogs, white papers, and research material. Do they enjoy variety and often try out many different brands? If they do, what can your business do to make your products or services feel constantly new? Or are they creatures of habit and frequently return to the same brands without much thought?

Knowing how your audience approaches their buying process is invaluable information that will optimize your marketing and sales approach.

How Do Your Customers Like to Engage?  

The more your customer’s engage with you, the more data your business can gather to further personalize your marketing messaging. Where are your customers engaging with your business the most? Which social media channels are the preferred means of engagement? Do your customers engage more in their inboxes or on discussion boards? Knowing where to go to engage and converse with your audience is critical for building lasting, loyal relationships that carry your business long-term.

Start Using Your Data Like a Valuable Resource

Imagine the impact when your business starts leveraging data to better understand your customers. Data-driven approaches empower your business to confidently optimize your marketing strategy and deliver greater customer experiences.

Do you want to collect and use data to improve your customer conversion and retention? Contact Sun Sign Designs to discuss a viable data & analytics strategy that will work for your business.

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Why Your Content Strategy Needs Consistency

By now, most businesses understand that content creation is integral to the success of any digital marketing strategy they deploy. Everyone has heard the famous phrase, “Content is king.” The saying is perhaps a tad overused now in marketing spaces, but it is repeated again and again for a reason—because it’s true! However, content is only king when it is consistent.

Unfortunately, barren blogs and empty social media pages often read as untrustworthy to potential customers. Today’s customers expect much more dedication and online engagement from brands than ever before.

What can more consistent content creation do for your business?

Audience Engagement

You can’t expect to build a loyal following with one-off blog posts, occasional social media posts, or infrequent email newsletters. People simply won’t stick around. Why? Even if a business releases high-quality content, infrequent or random distribution of the content will cause that business to get lost in the crowd. With a veritable ocean of content available to them, today’s consumers won’t wait around—they will move on and most likely forget about your brand. Content is a competitive space. Consistency will help distinguish your business in the crowd.

Businesses must build a consistent content routine and condition their audience to expect new, engaging content. This will keep customers frequently engaged and coming back to the business’s website or social media pages at regular intervals. A business starting with little-to-no following may be discouraged with frequent posting in the beginning, but content is one of the most effective marketing methods for a reason. Though it may take time to build, consistent content is a digital marketing tactic that contributes to long-term growth and sustainability.

Brand Recognition

Consistent content makes your brand memorable.

When you release content consistently, your brand presence is repeatedly appearing before your target audience. Consistency affects the mind. When people frequently see and recognize your brand—whether that be by seeing your logo, graphics, or colors—your business increases its chances of increasing leads conversions and driving sale goals.

People prefer to buy new products from brands that are familiar to them. Consistent content gives your business the opportunity to become familiar with a wider audience. High-quality content reinforces positive brand experiences, captures your audience’s attention, and keeps them coming back so they can build that recognition and familiarity.

Authority & Trust

Consumers are looking to see what businesses have to say and what knowledge they have to share. Producing and sharing informational content that answers questions, educates, and showcases expertise positions your business an industry expert. This type of content provides proof of your business’s experience and establishes your authority. If consumers do not feel confident in your business’s expertise, they will have difficulty to trusting your products or services.

Consistently demonstrating your industry knowledge not only positions your business as a leader, but it is essential to gain your audience’s trust and confidence. In addition, the regular posting of such content doubly reinforces your business’s reliability because your audience implicitly trusts you turn out valuable content.

Improve SEO

The more consistent and high-quality your content is, the more positive impact it will have on your SEO efforts. Search engines reward the frequency at which websites publish new content. Not only that, but written content allows businesses to optimize their website with more keywords and phrases.

As a result, this makes content marketing tactics like blogs a powerful SEO tool. Online visibility grows your business’s authority and strengthens customer trust. Increased visibility also directly improves website traffic.

Make Content Distribution a Priority

How often is your business publishing content? Could your business benefit from staying more engaged with your customers?

When it comes to content, consistency is key to create an impact with your audience. In terms of frequency and deployment, automation is your ally. Automation tools can help you schedule and deploy content like blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletters to increase your customer engagement and reach your customers at the right times.

Struggling to create engaging content in addition to running your business? Sun Sign Designs can help you there, too. Contact us today for a free strategy session!

Key Insights into the New Digital Buyer

Marketing and sales are constantly evolving. But they have evolved even more rapidly in the last decade as everything has increasingly moved to a digital space. Today’s digital buyers are not like traditional customers focused on price or functionality. In short, today’s digital buyers are independent, informed, and demanding. How can your business meet their expectations?

Buyers are more empowered

Technology has transformed the way buyers consume information. The Internet has broken down barriers. Now, digital buyers are empowered by the amount of information they have access to. As a result, they have gained more control over their own shopping experience and buyer’s journey. They don’t need to wait for a business to tell them what they need and why. Instead, buyers are in the driver’s seat. They are accustomed to doing their own research and gathering information on their own terms before coming to a definitive decision.

Today’s buyers find their own solutions and wait much later in the sales process or buyer’s journey before interacting with a business. The best things business’s can do is meet digital buyers where they are and deliver the research sources they are seeking in the form of blogs, news articles, infographics, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more. As a result, when buyers are seeking information, your business can be seen as a trusted source.

Buyers are brand sophisticated

Today’s digital buyers have many brands knocking on their doors and they are selective about who they let in. Why? Because they know what a strong brand looks like and what a strong brand will deliver. Today’s buyers know the nuances of marketing and can easily detect when brands are missing the mark. In a day and age where buyers are positively overwhelmed with options, they will not work with brands that do not have a solid brand identity or cohesive messaging.

Buyers are tech savvy

The new digital buyer is incredibly tech savvy and spends a good majority of their time online. Selling to a digitally-connected audience means businesses must keep up with technology and strengthen their digital presence. The migration of selling to digital spaces has acclimated buyers to virtual engagement and virtual experiences. As a result, businesses must market through multiple online channels and stay accessible to multiple devices.

Buyers demand meaningful engagement

The new digital buyer wants authenticity and connection. Despite their reliance on virtual channels, today’s buyers still want human authenticity and a personal touch. Whether on social media or through personalized email marketing, buyers want to be seen as unique individuals and catered to accordingly.  For businesses, this is where consumer data comes into play. You can only engage your audience when you know who they are and what they want. Analytic tools and data management platforms help businesses better understand their audience and segment their communications accordingly.

Knowing your audience helps you discover the content and messages people care about. As a result, you will know the precise tone and voice needed to initiate meaningful customer conversations

Buyers want a superior experience

Today’s buyers crave unique, memorable experiences, both in the content they consume and throughout their buyer’s journey. Price isn’t everything to today’s buyers. Their thought process focuses less on cost of a product and more about the overall buyer experience. Is your brand content unique or unexpected? Did your content entertain and educate? Are your brand communications personalized to their needs? Was working with your business frictionless and convenient? At the end of the day, the best buyer experience wins the most sales.

Today’s buyers have high expectations and they aren’t willing to settle.  Is your business equipped with the digital marketing tools needed to keep up?

Trending Now: Micro Video Content

Many businesses tend to emphasize long-form content in the marketing materials they produce for their audience, such as news articles, case studies, white papers, or webinars. The goal of long-form content is to provide valuable information to your reader, increase audience engagement, and aid customers in their buyer’s journey with your business. Not to mention, long-form content increases online visibility by improving your search engine rankings.

However, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for short-term content in your digital marketing strategy. On the contrary, one only has to look at social media to see the booming success of one type of short-term content in particular: micro videos.

What is Micro Video Content?

Micro videos are very short video clips that run from a few seconds to one minute. You need only scroll through some social media channels to see how videos even a few seconds long can garner massive views. This may not seem like enough time to convince your viewer to buy your products or work with your business—and you are mostly right. But this isn’t the point of micro video content.

What is the Goal of Micro Video Content?

Micro videos serve your audience bite-sized, brand-driven content that is easily digestible. Your brand can readily capture your audience’s attention and deliver small doses of your brand story, mission, products, and services. It is an incredibly effective strategy to build your brand presence and establish authority. The major goal of micro video content is to pique your audience’s attention enough that they will then go to your website and peruse your offerings with more interest to convert.

What other aspects of micro video content make them so popular and effective?

Micro Videos Capture Attention

Micro videos are popular because they are so straightforward and easy to consume. Viewers don’t go back-and-forth deliberating about watching your video because it is only a handful of seconds—what do they have to lose? Research suggests you have approximately 8 seconds to effectively hold your audience’s attention before their fidgety thumb scrolls onward.

Essentially, micro video content caters to our short attention spans, especially when we are on social media and expect short-form content. The message is short and sweet, but still emblazoned in our mind. As a result, people can easily watch micro videos on the go, in-between breaks, or whenever they have a spare minute to scroll through social media—slowly but surely building your brand presence in their mind.

Micro Videos Force You to be Concise

Micro videos will force you to keep your content and message focused. You only have a few seconds to a minute to get your message across. As a result, you can’t be going in several different directions. Keeping your videos short and messaging concise not only forces you to communicate better, but it also keeps your viewers more engaged and less likely swipe.

Micro Videos Entertain & Educate

Micro videos are becoming so popular and effective because they combine entertainment and education. It satisfies the viewer’s need to be entertained, but it also offers the unexpected value proposition of learning something new and interesting. Brands have increasingly used micro video content to show their audience how to use their products or services, display industry knowledge, and to start discussions and conversations on important industry topics.

Micro Videos are Shareable & Mobile-Friendly

Micro videos are designed for social shares. Video content is already more shareable on social media than written content, and micro videos even more so because people know it won’t take up too much of someone else’s time if they send it to them. Social media algorithms recognize these shares, which positively boost your brand’s page, website, online presence, and even SEO rankings.

Micro Videos Improve ROI on Long-Form Content

Once viewers are exposed to the brand, they are much more likely to dive into long-form content on the brand’s website. As a result, the impressive share-ability of micro video content often give businesses increased ROI’s on their long-form content.

What do you think about micro video content? Do you think it is an effective marketing strategy that is here to stay? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Interested in discussing how short-form content like micro video fits in your business’s marketing strategy? Contact Sun Sign Designs today!

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What Does ADA Compliance Mean for Your Website?

Disability affects 1 in 4 Americans. Is your website accessible to them?

What is ADA Compliance?

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is often associated with physical locations and accommodations certain businesses must make for people with disabilities. You might think of wheelchair accessibility or Braille for visually-impaired customers. However, ADA also extends to the digital sphere.

ADA Compliance refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. In 2010, the United States Department of Justice passed these digital accessibility standards for all public organizations to follow, so those with disabilities have access to all electronic information and technology. The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that mandates the inclusion of all people, especially those with disabilities, in all sectors of public life.

Who Needs to Follow ADA Compliance?

ADA Compliance is sometimes confused with 508 Compliance, which strictly applies to federal agencies and federal departments. On the other hand, ADA Compliance applies to the general public, specifically to businesses, nonprofits, local governments, and state governments. In short, if your business or organization caters to the general public, then your website must be ADA Compliant.

Since ADA Compliance broadly encompasses all electronic information and technology, which includes the Internet and the websites on it, it is more likely than not that your website needs to be ADA Compliant.

Who is Responsible for ADA Compliance?

In most cases of noncompliance, it is completely unintentional. Even though website owners aren’t intentionally ignoring these standards, they will be held completely liable. Every website owner is solely responsible for developing a website that offers “reasonable accessibility.” Regardless of who builds and develops the website, it is the website owner that is responsible for implementing the accessibility standards and personally liable for noncompliance.

What Happens if Your Website Isn’t ADA Compliant?

Failure to meet ADA Compliance can result in lawsuits, legal fees, hefty fines, potential settlements, public relations problems, and damage to your brand reputation. Even if website owners are unaware of ADA Compliance standards, they will still be held completely liable. First-time violations can result in fines from $55,000-$75,000 and then a $150,000 fine for every repeat violation. In addition to these fines, citizens can file lawsuits against your business or organization for being unable to access it, which could result in a large settlement.

If your website is not ADA Compliant, you can end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and lawsuits. What can you do?

Becoming ADA Compliant

Maintaining an ADA-compliant website helps protect your business against potential lawsuits and fines in addition to providing inclusive accommodations for all of your customers. ADA-compliant websites expand audience reach, enrich SEO efforts, improve brand reputation, enhance user experience, and offer businesses tax benefits.

But what does an ADA-complaint website look like exactly? Well, there are no clear regulations. However, websites must make an effort to offer “reasonable accessibility” to people with disabilities. Unlike ADA Compliance, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) isn’t a legal requirement. However, it provides helpful recommendations for businesses looking to improve their digital accessibility. WCAG focuses on assisting individuals with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments. Some digital accommodations include: providing text alternative for images,providing transcript or captions for audio and video content, allowing keyboard navigation and operation, and more.

By making a good-faith effort to achieve reasonable accessibility for people with disabilities, businesses can avoid potential fines, lawsuits, and losing valued customers.

Is Your Business ADA Compliant?

Does your business need help becoming ADA Compliant?

Sun Sign Designs offers a full suite of digital accessibility solutions to help your website meet ADA Compliance. There’s no need to overhaul your website and rewrite code—we will seamlessly integrate our AI-powered accessibility widget into your website. We offer a secure and easy compliance solution that doesn’t require reworking your entire site.

To find out more about ADA website compliance and how you can protect your business, contact Sun Sign Designs today!

Is Your Website Making You Money?

Why Isn’t Your Website Making Money?

Although there is tremendous competition in today’s online marketplace, competition isn’t the only reason your website could be underperforming in terms of sales and lead generation. So why isn’t your website delivering?

No One Can Find You

It’s impossible to sell to an empty room. If you’re wondering why your website isn’t making money, it’s time to ask yourself—is anyone able to find your product or service to begin with?  For your ideal customer to find you, your website needs to pop up in your customers’ search results. The goal of SEO is to know what your target customer is searching for online, so your business can create the high-quality content to satisfy their searches.

As you develop useful, engaging content to build SEO and organic traffic, your business needs to use multiple channels to drive relevant traffic in the meantime. When using a layered approach, you will create a steady stream of new opportunities to discover leads and to convert customers from many different fronts. For more immediate results in traffic, your website can implement Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, email marketing campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, affiliate marketing, retargeting, and more digital marketing tactics while your SEO strategy builds strength.

You’re Not Driving the Right Traffic

Your website receives steady monthly traffic—even big spikes monthly traffic—yet it fails to convert. What gives? No matter how good your website may be, you won’t be able to convert visitors who are simply not interested in your products or services. Website visitors from the wrong sources will do nothing to grow your business. To have a chance at converting visitors, you need to make sure your website can be found by potential customers actually interested in your products or services—also known as, your target audience.

Once you have nailed down your target demographic, your digital marketing tactics must be tailored to attract and convert that specific audience. If you try to appeal to everybody, you will appeal to no one. The result of trying to appeal to a wide audience is often a mixed bag of unqualified traffic.

Your Website Is Slow

In a market with many options, customer experience is king. Today’s users expect websites to load in two seconds or less. Your website simply won’t generate leads or sales if people leave before it loads. No matter who your target audience is, they won’t be sticking around if you have a sluggish website. Boosting your website speed immediately enhances user experience, increasing the likelihood visitors will remain on your website and view your products or services. Review your hosting options to see what could make your website faster and more reliable for customers.

Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

In addition, more organic traffic comes from mobile devices than desktop browsers. More people are relying on their smartphones and tablets to peruse the Internet than laptops or desktops. Can your website adapt to mobile users? If not, your business is losing qualified traffic. Optimizing these structural components on your website will help your business make a good first impression and allow visitors to effortlessly interact with your website.

Your Website Doesn’t Encourage Action

Does your homepage feature a compelling call-to-action? Are you constantly guiding your audience toward a specific action? Your website copy needs to tell your visitors what to do. Landing pages with unclear call-to-actions or no call-to-actions leave your visitors to flounder. Instead, guide your visitors to product pages, newsletter sign-ups, and other relevant content.

The opposite can be true as well. Visual clutter can confuse visitors and aggressive, salesy call-to-actions can immediately steer people away. Too many links or pop-ups can easily distract and annoy people, causing your visitors to leave and not come back. It is important to strike the right balance when designing your website.

Your Product or Service Pages Aren’t Optimized

Driving traffic to your website is only half the battle—product pages will make or break your conversions.

Once you get relevant visitors, then you want them to convert. A customer may have found your product page through a search of a product they need, by clicking on a PPC advertisement, or by seeing your brand on social media. Regardless of how they have found you, it is now up to your landing page to convince them to convert.

Your visitors will be judging the quality of your products and services by their pages. Low-quality images and poor descriptions immediately cast doubt on the quality of the product or service itself. As a result, your product pages need appealing images, clear titles, accurate product or service descriptions, and useful customer reviews. Professional photography, high-quality video production, and convincing customer reviews establish trust, assure customers of quality, and help them overcome potential objections.

Start Earning Money From Your Website

Your website is an incredibly valuable asset to your business. It should be making money for you—whether that is directly by selling products and generating leads or indirectly by growing a loyal following.

What’s stopping your website from making money?

What Do Customers Look for in Reviews & Testimonials?

Reviews and testimonials are among the top resources for buyers. Buyers consider customer reviews and testimonials to be an incredibly valuable informational source to inform their purchase decisions because people naturally trust their peers more than they trust businesses. Consequently, this type of social proof is essential for every business, particularly businesses with online stores. 

Though your business may offer a variety of useful content, customers will still rely on personal experiences to learn more about your brand and products. And a review is just that: an honest reflection of a customer’s experience with your products and brand.

But not all customer reviews are created equal. What aspects of customer reviews and testimonials are the most important to potential buyers?

Authenticated Reviews

Buyers look for reviews because they don’t want to just take your business’s word for it—they also want to hear from a real person. 

As a result, having authentic reviews from validated users is the single most important factor for buyers. Today’s buyers can be wary of customer reviews simply because of the amount of review fraud out there. Buyers’ main fears when it comes to customer reviews are reading false reviews from people who have never actually used the product or reading reviews from people who have been paid or incentivized for positive feedback. 

For this reason, user verification ensures the legitimacy of the written feedback and that buyers can trust the opinions in the reviews. Customer reviews have the most impact and potential to convert when the reviews are visibly authentic. 

In-Depth Reviews

The next thing buyers look for in reviews is the level of insight they offer. Buyers want descriptive and comparative reviews that will inform their purchase decision. Buyers are usually unconvinced by general, vague reviews that give no reason as to why they liked the product or why they didn’t like the product. 

As a result, the more detail in a review, the more likely a buyer will trust and benefit from the review. In-depth reviews legitimize the reviewer’s opinion and potential buyers then have greater confidence in trusting their opinion. Consequently, short, vague quotes and one-line testimonials are not social proof enough to convince potential buyers. 

Balanced Reviews

Buyers want to see the good and the bad. In fact, buyers actually consider mixed reviews more helpful and trustworthy than 100% positive reviews. Particularly, potential buyers are looking for reviews to be balanced by “pros and cons.” Not only are these types of reviews more helpful to buyers in their purchase decision, but a mix of good-and-bad impressions actually further validates the positive reviews. In addition, reviews that are simply too glowing immediately set off warning bells for the buyer, who may suspect the reviews are fraudulent or paid-for. 

Businesses, be not afraid. The presence of negative feedback in reviews must seem like the last thing you want to be featured on your site, but the presence of these reviews does not necessarily prevent buyers from making a purchase. On the contrary, it actually validates the positive feedback and also helps buyers know what to expect post-purchase. 

Does Your Business Have a Customer Review Strategy?

How well do you understand the buyer’s journey? Is your business’s website optimized with the resources buyers need to convert? During the buyer’s journey, people consistently consult reviews and testimonials to see if they trust the product, service, and seller.

Customer reviews have a powerful impact on your brand and your success—we’ll help you put a review strategy in place that increases the participation of your current customers and secures new ones. 

Contact Sun Sign Designs today for a free strategy session! 

Sun Sign Designs Matches LEC Fundraiser & Donates $2,000

Sun Sign Designs matched the Life Enrichment Center’s Facebook Fundraiser that raised $2,000. With Sun Sign Design’s matched donation, the LEC raised $4,000 in funds for the North Tampa non-profit to continue to thrive and grow!

The Life Enrichment Center (LEC) is a private, non-profit organization that operates as an innovative arts education center for adults. Located in North Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood since 1980, it is one of only a few centers across the country focused on redefining and reshaping retirement and the experience of aging. Its cultural arts program has received national and international recognition and serves as a model of a successful community-based organization, serving adults primarily 50+.

The Life Enrichment Center’s mission is dedicated to creating a high quality, accessible arts and culture platform that focuses on the importance of lifelong learning in the fine arts, health and wellness programs, and cultural humanities for a vibrant adult community. Visit the LEC’s website here.

Fawn Organics Launches Organic Bicycle Wash

Sun Sign Designs is excited to share that Fawn Organics has launched a new product: Organic Bicycle Wash!

Bikes offer a sustainable, healthy, and pollution-free way to travel and enjoy the outdoors. Unfortunately, some cycling must-haves—like cleaning sprays, lubes, and oils—can be harmful to the environment due to their toxic formulations.

It’s next to impossible to clean oil and grease from a bike with water alone, which is why bike-specific cleaners developed. Conventional bike cleaners contain solvents that breakdown grease and oil effectively; however, these same solvents contain chemicals that harm the environment. These toxins are especially hazardous to humans, animals, and plant life when they reach water sources.

Safer for You + Safer for the Planet

Fawn Organics knows cleaning your bike is essential to maintain pricey bike parts and to enjoy a smooth, fast, quiet ride. That’s why Fawn Organics developed an eco-friendly, organic bike cleaner, so bike owners never have to compromise a clean bike for harmful chemicals. Unlike other bike washes with harsh chemicals, Fawn Organics’ new Organic Bicycle Wash features an eco-friendly, biodegradable formula that uses plant-based ingredients for a toxin-free clean. It is also paraben-free and dye-free!

With this spray, bike owners can quickly clean dirt, grit, grime, grease, soil, and storage dust that build up on their bike’s frame, saddle, spokes, brakes, chain, gears, handlebars, and wheels. The Organic Bicycle Wash is safe to apply on all bike components—but still tough enough to get the job done. It can be used on carbon fiber, titanium, aluminum, steel, rubber, and clear coat. Fawn’s formulation coats and protects your bike’s metal surfaces more than regular soap and water to extend the lifetime of your ride. Cleaning your bike is as simple as spraying the Bike Wash on and rinsing it off for quick, toxin-free maintenance.

Need some more Shop Talk? Click here to read a more in-depth guide on how to clean your bikewith the Organic Bicycle Wash!

Our Mission

At Sun Sign Designs, we love to find and support companies that want to make a positive change in the world. We partnered with Fawn Organics and worked closely with them to develop and launch their line of organic cleaning products. Sun Sign Designs is committed to social good and making a social impact—we believe that Fawn Organics’ latest launch, Organic Bicycle Wash, will bring positive change for the environment, cyclists, and bikes.

Contact Sun Sign Designs CEO Stephen Powell at [email protected] if you are interested in selling Organic Bicycle Wash wholesale, or if you are developing a product of your own. We love helping mission-driven businesses!

Visit the Fawn Organics shop here to check out their latest product launch!